MOSCOW, April 18 France in February became the main buyer of Russian gas among the EU countries, displacing Hungary from this position, it follows from calculations based on European statistics.
Thus, France purchased liquefied natural gas from Russia for 322.3 million euros, which is ten percent more than in January.
Hungary, which buys pipeline gas, became the leader in Russian gas imports in December last year. But in February it cut its imports by a third to 210 million euros, dropping to second place. The top three is completed by Spain with LNG imports worth 118.3 million euros.
Greece increased its gas purchases from Russia the most in February — 7.8 times, to 110.4 million euros. Finland and Sweden follow, having doubled their purchases to 6.6 and 4.7 million euros, respectively.
In total, the EU purchased 1.1 billion euros worth of gas from Russia at the end of winter, of which 619.4 million were for LNG supplies, and 493.3 million for pipeline gas.
The European market has historically been the main one for Russian gas producers. In the past, exports there reached 150 billion cubic meters and even more, but in 2022, after the destruction of Nord Stream and anti-Russian sanctions, they decreased significantly. At the end of 2022, Gazprom’s gas supplies to non-CIS countries fell by approximately 85 billion cubic meters to 100.9 billion. Almost all of this decline occurred in the EU.